Rolling Obituary Thread: 2021

he also looked like he didn't age from Heaven Can Wait (1978) to Midnight Run (1988)

And Dr. Hill in Rosemary's Baby!

ah he's so funny in heaven can wait

Had the stunning privilege of seeing Charles Grodin do a Q&A after a screening of Midnight Run in 2011. He spoke uninterrupted about criminal justice reform for at least 30 minutes, maybe even an hour before taking questions. Absolute god. RIP.

— Will Sloan (@WillSloanEsq) May 18, 2021

Im not sure too many could have managed that role in midnight run without sliding into either bill murray or dan aykroyd but he balanced it beautifully- he elevates the whole thing

RIP Charles Grodin. Things got heated enough between Letterman & Grodin that he brought out a lawyer to sit with him, while Grodin explained he planned to sue Letterman for libel. Grodin later said the attorney was “a burlesque comic” he’d hired. https://t.co/H5l9SdDp3l

— kentucker (@kentucker) May 18, 2021

I just tweeted at the guy, Don Giller, who does all the Letterman compilations on YouTube and he says that one for all of Grodin's appearances should be up by tomorrow.

I remember being struck by how old he seemed in Louie a few years back, and then realising that was because he was much older than I'd thought he was

I just skimmed this a bit, but it looks pretty great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT6HIfhwtKo

Godzilla vs. Mothra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEIIsYal890

RIP. Also had no idea he was as old as he was (would have had him at least ten years younger). That Carson clip is great.

I'll get around to Clifford one of these days.

the Letterman stuff was such gold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD1xH1Mdgzc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDNgBgnTE1g

rip tru pittsburgh kid

I used to be obsessed with Clifford. Might just let that ride in my memory forever.

rewatched Midnight Run again tonight & it’s still absolutely perfect in every way.

A friend and I were talking about someone's penchant for showing up in rock documentaries a few days ago. E-mail tonight: "Just reading a long list of celebrity tributes to Chuck Grodin. Confusingly, Dave Grohl not among them!"

Lol

And Dr. Hill in _Rosemary's Baby_!

clifford is very funny for the first half, unfortunately it gets exhausting after a while

clifford's not long it ends before it may wear out its welcome.

I could have sworn Paul Mooney died several years ago, but apparently he died overnight of a heart attack, at 79.

Or, as The Daily Mail put it, "The Buddy Holly Story actor dies at 79"

xp, honestly same. i also weirdly thought grodin died a few years ago too.

either way, rip to both extremely funny individuals

RIP to the great Paul Mooney.
Nobody remembers the Buddy Holly movie but leave it to some press to highlight that minor credit as opposed to what he really excelled at.

RIP, he was great. I had absolutely no idea he was 79 though!

I worshipped Charles Grodin. Once back in about 1981 he went on Donahue with (I think it was) Carol Burnett to discuss their new campaign to get people to "be nice to each other". That's all there was to it. They did a whole one-hour show about it with Donahue's studio audience. It seemed like it had to be a put-on, but they were both being completely sincere. Grodin's talent for deadpan ran so deep that it was hard to be 100% sure. I never heard anything more about the campaign, and I've never been able to google anything about it. Weird old lost television.

it's funny how mooney was probably on a combined 7-8 minutes of screentime during the chappelle's show but each joke was so memorable that he's probably the third person people think of when they mention that show behind dave and charlie murphy

RIP to the great Paul Mooney.

rot in pieces to the noted child rapist

Wha?!? Source? This is new to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mooney_(comedian)#Child_sexual_abuse_allegation

Holy shit.

He was fucking Richard Pryor Jr. in the 1970s, who when asked about it by TMZ a couple of years ago*, said "How could any relationship be consensual when I was a teenager?"

* After Pryor Sr.'s former bodyguard released a tell-all noting that Pryor Sr. wanted to hire a killer to take out Mooney, but dropped it after his immolation incident.

Pryor Sr.'s double-widow Jennifer Lee Pryor confirmed that Jr. had also told multiple people about it at his father's wake.

xp

(Lee Pryor adds some other details below there)

Oof, that's bad news indeed.

Report just now, separately:

RIP Yoshi Wada, a masterful artist. His use of bagpipes was enough to make you question the limitations we place on all instruments. I talked with him on the phone 2 weeks ago & didn't expect this... please interview older artists while they're still herehttps://t.co/DPNUVTHyNI

— Joshua Minsoo Kim (@misterminsoo) May 19, 2021

Miura Kentaro, mangaka known for his series Berserk

Just announced by his wife on Facebook, the comic book writer and publisher David Anthony Kraft, from Covid-related pneumonia:

https://heykidscomics.fandom.com/wiki/David_Anthony_Kraft

Muscle Shoals drummer Roger Hawkins, 75.

Ugh, RIP.

UK tour manager legend Craig Duffy -- very tragic circumstances, had been in the business for years and has pretty much worked on every Damon Albarn related thing since the tour of the millennium, but also had worked with folks like the 1975, the Damned, Sex Gang Children, even Right Said Fred. He had been going through chemo, was going back from a treatment when he and his wife were killed in a car crash.

R I P CRAIG DUFFY:
Very sad and shocked to hear of the death of Craig and his partner Sue. Still trying to get my head around this. pic.twitter.com/7abPstiFSI

— Andi Sex Gang (@Dada_Degas) May 22, 2021

Extremely shocked and saddened to hear that Craig Duffy and his partner Sue died in a car crash yesterday.
Craig was our tour manager in the 90s, we rarely agreed on anything but we had stayed in touch and remained friends. He was a good guy and an excellent TM. Rest in peace XX

— Right Said Fred (@TheFreds) May 22, 2021

Interview/podcast appearance with him from last year:

https://www.breaker.audio/the-flat-fourum/e/75070182

Lesbian folk singer Alix Dobkin, 80.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/feminist-activist-alix-dobkin-made-193635441.html

Sick name

Chi Modu, legendary photographer for The Source magazine at age 54.

https://ambrosiaforheads.com/2021/05/legendary-hip-hop-photographer-chi-modu-obituary/

RIP Chi Modu. A vital individual in hip hop’s history for sure.

*not* RIP Rock ‘n roll. It never dies.

https://www.thelocal.it/20210523/italian-rockers-after-eurovision-win-we-want-to-tell-the-whole-world-rock-and-roll-never-dies/

like a perpetual Bruce Springsteen jackboot stamping on your face forever

Max Mosley, 81

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/24/max-mosley-f1-racing-driver-fia-president-privacy-campaigner-dies-aged-81

Cristóbal Halffter, Spanish composer of classical music. He was 91. RIP.

Mary Beth Edelson, pioneering feminist artist

https://www.artforum.com/news/mary-beth-edelson-1933-2021-85737

Kind of surprised that not one of Max Mosley's obituaries has (so far) mentioned the role he played in fomenting the UK's first race riot in modern times, in Notting Hill, west London, in 1958. It's not as if there's not clear evidence.

— Ian Cobain (@IanCobain) May 24, 2021

singing teacher tona west (née tona de brett) seems to have died recently:

https://tonawest.muchloved.com/

i know she taught liz fraser and annie lennox and some other good people, but she was pretty well-known in the uk as the person that record labels sent terrible singers to in an attempt to extract something resembling music. googling gave me this list of former clients, can't say she was successful in every case but hey at least she tried:

Adam Ant, Basia, Tears for Fears, Dido, Paul Hardcastle, Tanita Tikaram, Bananarama, Rick Parfitt (Status Quo), Rick Astley, Andy Summers (Police), Jonny Rotten (Sex Pistols), Seal, Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson, Paul Young, Martine McCutcheon, Billy Piper, Mike Skinner, Jimmy Nail, Lush, Keith Flint, Lily Allen, Brett Anderson, Ozzy Osbourne, Matt Bianco, David McCalmont, Strawberry Switchblade, Murray Head, Beth Orton